1. Field
The present disclosure pertains to the field of information processing, and more particularly, to the field of partitioning information processing systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, the concept of partitioning in information processing systems refers to dividing a system into partitions, where each partition is a group of system resources that may be operated as a complete and independent system. The system resources that may be allocated to a partition include processors, processor cores (where individual cores of a multicore processor may be allocated to different partitions), portions of system memory, and input/output (“I/O”) devices. Different types of partitioning are known.
In “soft” partitioning, system resources may be shared between partitions. One form of soft partitioning is virtualization, which allows multiple instances of one or more operating systems (each, an “OS”) to run on a single system, even though each OS is designed to have complete, direct control over the system and its resources. Soft partitioning typically requires that a virtual machine monitor, hypervisor, OS, or other such software is designed to run in one partition of a partitioned system and enforce the sharing of physical resources, which may include preventing any such software running in other partitions from directly controlling physical resources.
In “hard” partitioning, each system resource is typically dedicated to a respective partition. Hard partitioning provides for any OS, virtual machine monitor, hypervisor, or other such software to be run in each partition without requiring that the software be designed for a partitioned system, because such software may directly control the physical resources of its partition.